Posted: Thu, Aug 29, 2002, 9:13 AM ET (1313 GMT)
An Ariane 5 lifted off Wednesday night and successfully placed two satellites into orbit. The Ariane 5 lifted off at 6:45 pm EDT (2245 GMT) Wednesday and placed its two spacecraft into geosynchronous transfer orbits 36 minutes after launch. The launch, postponed one day by computer problems, was delayed 15 minutes on Wednesday for undisclosed reasons. The Ariane 5's payload included the Atlantic Bird 1 communications satellite and the MSG 1 weather satellite. Atlantic Bird 1, built by Alenia Spazio for Eutelsat, will provide Ku-band services for Europe and the eastern US from 12.5 degrees west. MSG 1, to be located at 0 degrees east, is the first Meteosat Second Generation weather spacecraft, built by ESA for EUMETSAT. The next Ariane launch is scheduled for September 6, when one of the last remaining Ariane 4 boosters will launch Intelsat 906.